Italy hosts over 100 NATO and USA bases: from Sigonella to Aviano, here is the map of military installations on our territory. What is the true strategic role of Italy in the Atlantic alliance and what risks does it entail?
How much do we really know about NATO? How exactly does the Atlantic military alliance work? Above all, where are his (many) bases in Italy? Until recently, that is, with the entry of Finland and Sweden under the Biden presidency, NATO – thanks to its 32 official members – seemed to enjoy excellent health. There was a sort of certainty that, in the event of “problems” with Russia or other countries that had threatened our continent, the United States – as Primus Inter Persons for NATO Military Military Expenses and Expenses – would have taken up a powerful force in our defense. That same strength they have been equipped since 1949 to be counterweight at the Warsaw Pact. In exchange for the Atlantist “umbrella”, each Member State must pay 2 percent of their national GDP to guarantee a budget adequate to maintaining the shield. This is because the military alliance receives the funds directly and indirectly from its members through contributions calculated on the basis of gross national income. Rome, like everyone else, pays this “service”.
Even if, to be honest, on the agreed expenses we have always been in default: Only a few virtuous countries really respect the 2 percent share of the national GDP to be allocated to the NATO coffers, a commitment made by the Member States in 2006 at the top of the line and has since become customary (but not an obligation). Just Donald Trump has repeatedly complained about this. With his return to the White House, in fact, in the middle of the War of Russian aggression to Ukraine, the US President first questioned the participation fee – “NATO is obsolete. Its members support America, they don’t pay what they should. Each contributes with 5 percent of the GDP » – and today it questions the same Atlantist architecture. Trump considers military spending to defend Europe as a waste of public money, and has decided that America has to cut any military support to the old continent. We do not know where this policy will lead, and if Europe really will be expected.
Instead, what is known – but, even here, up to a certain point – is the imposing military presence of the United States and NATO in Atlantist geography. Italy, one of the 12 founding countries of the alliance, has always played a central role and has maintained firm their loyalty to NATO. As the President of the Council himself clarified Giorgia Meloni, “it is the duty of Italy to contribute fully, because, we like it or not, freedom has a cost and that cost, for a state, it is the ability that it has to defend itself and the reliability it demonstrates in the framework of the alliances of which it is part”. In 2002, our country even promoted the approach of Russia to NATO, establishing the NATO-Russia Council during the seaside practice summit. In short, we are irreplaceable for the Atlantic alliance. Also because within our territory there are dozens of official military structures, belonging to both NATO and the United States, to which others are joined by other non -declared. But determining precisely the number of bases is not easy. In 2013 at least 59 counted, almost all with US or hybrid presence.
Today those declared have risen to 120a considerable figure even if not all of them fall into the category of “NATO bases” in the strict sense (the largest on the continent, intended for at least ten thousand soldiers, is being built in Romania, on the strategic coast of the Black Sea). There are at least four different types of military structures relating to the Atlantic alliance: the foundations granted to the United States by virtue of bilateral agreements of the 1950s (in these cases sovereignty remains Italian, but operational control over vehicles and missions is entrusted to the US armed forces); the born foundations proper, with a true integrated command structure; the Italian bases available to NATO (depending on the commitments undertaken within the covenant); Still, installations shared between Italy, the United States and NATO, the result of multilateral cooperation. In addition to these, it is plausible to believe that at least 20 other military/residential residential installations exist unofficial, covered by military secret.
In any case, we host some of the most important Atlantist structures in the world: One of the two general commands of the NATO integrated forces, the Allied Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples), who shares this burden/honor together with Brussum (Holland) lies in Naples. The base deals with the support to the US naval units and the supreme allied command in Europe. Among military and civil personnel, there are about 10 thousand people. Coordinates the logistics of 14 ports of Italy, it hosts a college and the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station Naples (NCTS) which provides data and support for US telecommunications. In Aviano, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, there is the largest American air base in the Mediterranean, within which a key structure of the alliance operates, because here are atomic Bomb bombs of type B61-4.
But it is probably in Sigonella, Sicily, the most important operational base born: Here, in the Piana di Catania, there is the Us Navy airport in the Mediterranean, which acts as a base of transmission of the data necessary for flight and attack plans, and from here many of the aircraft take place usually used in the Middle East and North Africa. The Global Hawk drones and the NATO RQ-4D are also taken off as Sigonella as part of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations. In Sicily there are also: the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), a supply base for the whole Mediterranean; And the Mobile User Objective System (Muos), a very delicate satellite communication system that integrates naval, aerial and terrestrial forces of the United States everywhere in the world.
In Vicenza, however, there are Camp Ederle and Camp del Dinwhere four thousand between soldiers and staff manage the United States Army Africa (Usaraf) headquarters. While in Camp Darby, halfway between Pisa and the port of Livorno, a gigantic base of the US army exits that acts as a storage of ammunition and bombs (many of the materials finished in Ukraine have passed from here): it is the largest deposit of weapons outside the United States, it takes about two thousand people and has 125 underground bunkers.
Again, in Poggio Renatico (in the province of Ferrara), the Deployable Air Command and Control Center is locatedwhere the airspace is monitored and where the staff trained for NATO operations and exercises is aquatest; While the port of Gaeta hosts the flagship ship and command of the VI Fleet USA.
Finally, they must mention: Taranto, which welcomes the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) of the Southern Operational Center (Soc), in practice naval forces and ampibias that Italy makes available to NATO; La Spezia, which houses an important NATO Technological Research Center; And then Ghedi, in the province of Brescia, which contains a second deposit of atomic bombs.
All these military installations mentioned reflect the geopolitical dynamics affecting the first line of defense and attack of the so -called “West”. In short, Rome plays a strategic role, since it provides some of the best and most armed support structures for US and Atlantic troops, such as to allow a rapid deployment of vehicles and men in a vast area, which can extend from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aden, under the Arabian Peninsula, guaranteeing timely response times in war scenarios. The downside are the perplexities about both the effective sovereignty of our country and to the potential risks related to a military escalation. In fact, these installations could turn into targets in case of conflict. And if “the best defense is the one that does not make it clear where to attack”, then Italy is extremely exposed
